


By This Blood

by Rens_Knight



Series: In the Burning of the Light [17]
Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-15 04:07:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28807056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rens_Knight/pseuds/Rens_Knight
Summary: Tarssus Kallig and Rûmaz are not the only heretic Sith to have led apprentices in the way of the Light.Overseer Okala Emmoridg and his band of students have kept one step ahead of the law of the Dark for years, but on this night their luck finally runs out.
Series: In the Burning of the Light [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/711327
Kudos: 2





	By This Blood

A second warning had come from the apprentice of the Emperor's Wrath...and this time there would be no avoiding the decimation of Okala Emmoridg and everything he and his disciples stood for.

Lord Cendence had caught wind of what they were once already, these heretic Sith of the Light. Cendence had pursued and caught up to Overseer Emmoridg then, taking him and his Twi'lek student Sil'jema prisoner and torturing them for every scrap of information...and pleasure...that he could.

For the sake of his daughter Jazryn, and all the other students Cendence hadn't located yet, Emmoridg had held his silence. But oh, by the fiercest burning of the Light, he'd come so close to breaking. Anything to make the lightning-torment end, _anything_ \--

  
Which was when Apprentice Jaesa Willsaam had appeared in a fury of whirling golden blades, her staff lashing out at Lord Cendence, buying Emmoridg and Sil'jema precious time to wrest themselves free of their bonds and reclaim their weapons. The combined power of Willsaam, Sil'jema, and Emmoridg finally overcame Lord Cendence.

_Why?_ Emmoridg had demanded of Apprentice Willsaam, slipping bitterness and suspicion onto his face as an all-too-familiar mask. _You belong to the Emperor's own Wrath. And_ both _of you once belonged to Darth Baras. Yet you come to our aid against Lord Cendence. You have_ no idea _what you've interfered in--_

_I know what I see_ , Willsaam had replied with an eerie sort of calm, hands together in a meditative posture as if she hadn't just leapt upon Lord Cendence in a snarling rage. _I see loyalty--devotion...love. The Light pervades you both, though you try to deny it to me_.

Emmoridg knew of another Sith Lord who spoke like that sometimes, his voice deadly soft before he sprung one of his many traps. He unsheathed his saber again. His blade--amethyst--did it betray him too, before her legendary powers of discernment? _I'll show you the damned 'Light Side of the Force_ ,' he'd growled. _You want to see how 'Light' I am? You want the credit for Cendence's kill? Come and fight--we'll see if you can take it!_

_Overseer Emmoridg_ , she'd said, _those words aren't you. And they aren't me, either. I didn't come here to poach off of Lord Cendence. I came here to_ stop _him from destroying you._

_Rûmaz--the Wrath--does_ he _know you're here?_

Apprentice Willsaam had sidestepped the question. _We don't have long before someone comes looking for Cendence, and_ none _of us can be here when that happens. Do you have a ship? You need to get out of the system--all of you--_ now _!_ They'd fled in their separate directions then.

Emmoridg never had got an answer to that question, whether the Emperor's Wrath knew what his apprentice was up to--or moreover, _supported_ it. The former Jedi, a secret heretic...that didn't surprise Emmoridg. But Rûmaz, personal servant to the Immortal Sith Emperor...? How could _anyone_ , let alone a man in the Light, withstand the sheer enormity of the Emperor's Darkness up close without spilling all the secrets of who he was?

Now--no more time remained. If he was to find his answers soon, none could ever know.

The call had come again a year later, not as a swirling of saberstaff blades, nor a holo even over the most secure of channels. It had come this time as a cry through the Force itself, that of a woman throwing the entire weight of her soul into bridging the immense distances of spacetime with one dreadful message.

_Lord Caliqu is in pursuit. He's figured out you had something to do with Cendence's death. He knows where you are and he may have suspicions. He's due to arrive any minute now and I can't stop him. Save yourselves, Emmoridg,_ please _...!_

Caliqu--one of Darth Aruk's top lieutenants, apprentice to the Dark Councillor of the Sphere of Sith Philosophy himself. Emmoridg knew himself to be dreadfully outclassed in the face of a power like Caliqu. He'd never been that strong of a Sith Lord...his skills were born of the Light and of necessity, but he lacked the strength of one like Willsaam...

...or Rûmaz, the Wrath.

The things he knew--the things he _suspected_ \--if Caliqu were to wrest them from him...oh, by all the stars, the damage could spread further even than his daughter, his students, himself--it could be the end of far more powerful lights within the Empire and they would _never_ be free of the Emperor, free to evolve and to grow into something else, something _more_...

But _now_ \--his daughter, his students...they were all together here in the catacombs of Dromund Kaas, deep beneath the ruins of the Dark Temple and its ghosts and secrets. It had served them once, shielding their bright presence from sight, but no more. Imperial aerospace control was far too strong on this world; he could _never_ get them offworld undetected.

He'd had a plan in mind for years now; he'd always known the dangers he faced, he'd known the odds against his survival as a bearer of the Light within the Sith Order, but he'd hoped somehow it might not come to... _this_.

"Forgive me for everything," he muttered to himself, unsure as to who else he spoke to. "Forgive me for all I've done, all I'm about to do...but no matter what's to become of _me_ , please let this do what it's meant to do...!"

This was it. Emmoridg knew what Caliqu had to find. All that remained was to set the scene...damn it, that made it sound so _elegant_ , what had to happen. It would be anything but.

He summoned them all together--his students. There were the humans: the young men Kenka Aasa and Nas Oddo, barely even of age, it seemed, and Torjai Penrys, a woman who barely looked any older than them at twenty-five. Then there were Sil'jema and Xawe, Twi'lek and Rattataki respectively...

And his own daughter, Jazryn Emmoridg.

He felt his heart tearing out of his chest in horrific anticipation, when he lay his eyes upon her.

"My Lord..." She caught the look in his eyes, felt the dread rolling off of him in the Force. "Father?"

"We're in grave danger. Willsaam's reached out. Aruk's man is coming our way and there's not enough time to get out of his reach."

Oddo bowed his head, though Emmoridg barely saw the motion. His eyes remained focused on his daughter, even as Oddo muttered, "We're doomed."

"You," Emmoridg carefully enunciated, "are _not_ doomed. Caliqu is probably going to catch up with at least one of you. But because of Apprentice Willsaam's warning, I am prepared this time. I have a plan, so that even when he comes, you will have the chance to cross paths with him, go your own ways, and _survive_."

"We're splitting up," Xawe realized. "Permanently."

"Yes," the heretic Overseer confirmed. "You cannot travel together again. From here on out, you make contact with each other at your peril. But before that can happen--I need you to listen carefully, for I can only say this once."

_And if I do_ not _say it_ , Emmoridg thought to himself, _I may never find the strength again, and it will mean the end for_ all _of us._

He pressed on. Still his deep, dark eyes did not waver from those of Jazryn Emmoridg. "There is a way to cover your natures...if not in the Force, beyond the ways I've already taught you, but at least in Lord Caliqu's eyes. I have always told you to think, to question everything you're told. This one time, I need you to do as I say _without_ question and accept that there is no other way.

"I have taught you all that I can. When I am assured that I have given you everything I have remaining, I will have fulfilled all that I have sought to do in this life--"

" _Father--NO!_ " Jazryn's wail pierced the soul of Okala Emmoridg down to the core. She could feel it. And him--oh, how he could feel it for them _both._..! " _No, no, NO!_ "

He nodded, unclipping his saber from his belt, then letting it fall to the stone floor.

Emmoridg spread his hands wide. "I will _always_ be with you, Jazryn. What you are about to do--you do with my blessing, not my anger."

Jazryn sobbed. "Father--you _can't_ \--I won't--no way...no, no..."

"The deathblow _must_ tell the right story when he investigates--I can't do this myself--"

"Father, please-- _don't_ ask me to do this...I _love_ you...!" Tears flowed from his daughter's eyes, each one a charge of which Emmoridg was absolutely and wholly guilty.

"And that is why it _has_ to be you...he _has_ to believe you've placed the desire for temporal power above our family ties!"

Something _writhed_ in the Force then--not one of the dreadful ghosts from the Temple wreckage far above, but something painfully _alive_. All of them felt it--Emmoridg saw them shudder as one.

" _Please_ , Jazryn," Emmoridg pleaded. Now his own tears streamed freely down his cheeks. "He's almost here! Take the hate you feel for Caliqu and Aruk, for putting you in this position, for the injustice of what we're facing--seize it and force it into your kyber crystal, let my blood bleed it red so he will see the Sith Lord you have to be, and _all of you_ can carry the Light out of this place! _Now_ , Jazryn! _Kill me now!_ "

He reached out with all his soul through the Force, caring not if it tore free from his body, begging with all his passion, all his terror, all his love, for his daughter to take from him the one thing he had left to give, that she and the rest of his devotees might live.

Jazryn's hands trembled. Only with that same Force could she steady the saber and ignite it. It blazed with the orange of sunset, though as she charged forward, anguished cry rending the air, Emmoridg caught the first hints of vermilion sparks spewing out from the hilt.

Milliseconds extended into years before Emmoridg's eyes, past and present blending into one dreadful shriek. One last barrier before the veil was pierced forevermore.

_Cendence's lightning wrapped round him--Sil'jema wailing, secrets threatening to burst out into the open--_ for Jazryn, hold on for Jaz! _\--_

_Overseer Srâtsda was dead. His daughter's voice carried the news over the comm. She had_ survived _\--he could call her to him now, he could protect her the rest of the way through the Sith Academy. He released a whoop of victory--_

_The clay pot flew off the shelf of its own accord, smashed into the wall. Little Jazryn shrieked and giggled all at once, unsure if she should be proud of her deed or terrified of it. Her father felt the same._ She wields the Force...oh, by all the stars, the Academy will take her...she wields the Force...!

_His wife screamed. One last push--one last push--and suddenly Okala Emmoridg saw for himself what life truly meant, what power there truly was in the Light..._

_...the_ Light _...!_

Somewhere in a dim subterranean chamber, a tall, thin figure crumpled to the floor as crimson light withdrew from its chest. A woman howled at the sight as the others fought to drag her away--to leave what had been done now, lest it be discovered before she was ready to face her pursuer.

From his vantage point somewhere above, the rich-toned features, only barely removed from life, were tough to make out. The tight, close-trimmed coils of hair that wreathed the head had all gone grey...when had _that_ happened?

Perhaps a few minutes passed. A long-haired Sith Pureblood charged into the catacombs, finding the place only just abandoned. His red hand reached down, rolled the body over, spat once the face came into view.

It seemed almost ludicrous that the man believed his gesture meant anything, especially from here. The Sith Lord's fingers probed deep into the cauterized wound in the chest cavity. Perhaps they still felt not just the lingering body heat, but that of the saber that had done the deed.

The delay would ultimately mean that Kenka Aasa, Nas Oddo, and Xawe would escape from Dromund Kaas altogether, Caliqu never even laying eyes on them. He could already see that somehow, even though it seemed as though it hadn't happened yet.

By the time Caliqu caught up with Sil'jema, Torjai Penrys...and Jazryn Emmoridg...how she _burned_ with righteous hatred, how it powered the projection of ferocity and Darkness that Caliqu needed to see. And this, combined with the body that much resembled her, told a story fit to be read by a Sith Lord. He let them go.

Lord Caliqu never noticed there should have been nothing to move the air in this poorly ventilated part of the underground catacombs. He never noted it on his datapad when an isolated breeze rushed through the corridor, coming from nowhere, and exiting somewhere that could never be seen.

Somewhere, in the Places Beyond, Okala Emmoridg smiled for the first time in a very long time.

It was done.


End file.
